QS ranking profile
University of Plymouth
This page presents clearly labeled QS ranking data for orientation. It does not verify programs, supervisors, funding, admission requirements, or the university's website.
- QS 2026 rank
- #613
- Up 48 places since 2025
- QS 2025 rank
- #661
- Overall score
- 27.8
Explore opportunities at University of Plymouth
Browse active research positions, doctoral fellowships, and university funding calls indexed from official faculties and verified sources.
QS indicators
Reported ranking indicators
Each indicator is scored out of 100 in the same QS snapshot as the summary above.
#701 worldwide
#701 worldwide
#801 worldwide
#508 worldwide
#382 worldwide
#332 worldwide
#303 worldwide
#311 worldwide
#801 worldwide
#530 worldwide
Institution profile
How QS classifies this institution
QS groups institutions by size, subject range, and research output.
- Size
- Large
- About 12,000 to 30,000 students
- Subject range
- Focused
- Teaches a limited range of faculty areas
- Research intensity
- High
- High research output in the QS classification
- Region
- Europe
- QS regional grouping
University profile
About University of Plymouth
Editorial background written for orientation. Verify programs, funding, and admission on the university's official pages.
Research areas at the University of Plymouth
The University of Plymouth's postgraduate research areas page says the university supervises doctoral and master's research across thirty subject areas. Its examples run from marine and mathematical sciences to robotics and AI, chemistry, cyber security, engineering, environmental work, health, and biological fields, alongside arts, business, law, education, social care, and sustainability. Treat this inventory as a starting map, not a yearly record of open projects; the next check should be the area page and its potential supervisors.
Plymouth's Doctoral College acts as a central point for postgraduate research degrees and is responsible for quality assurance and enhancement of those programmes. The university says the college supports training for students, supervisors, and examiners, and provides researcher-development sessions, inductions, mentoring, and networking. This central layer can help an applicant understand the research journey, while the academic faculty or school remains the place to assess the subject, methods, facilities, and supervision connected with a proposed project.
Research degrees and doctoral support
The university describes a wide set of research-degree awards, including ResM, MPhil, PhD, MD, DBA, DClinPsy, EngD, and EdD. Its research-degree information says programmes can be studied full time or part time, with the structure depending on the award and subject. The Doctoral College handbook covers enrolment, supervision, project approval, research training, monitoring, thesis submission, examination, and student support. These documents help an applicant distinguish the degree title from the actual research process that will be followed.
Plymouth also publishes research-area pages that give a flavour of possible topics and encourage applicants to contact potential supervisors early. The university's staff directory identifies postgraduate research coordinators across faculties and says they can discuss potential supervisors and answer questions about a research area. That is a useful route for applicants whose topic is between fields. It also shows why a general subject label is not enough: a project may need a school-level contact, cross-faculty supervision, or a defined research centre.
How to assess a Plymouth research fit
Translate the proposed idea into a question, setting, method, and evidence before browsing the thirty research areas. A marine project might specify a coastal system, sampling plan, and environmental measure. A robotics or cyber-security project could define the technical system, threat or task, and evaluation data. A health or education project may need a participant group, service setting, and ethical or institutional access plan. A creative or humanities project should explain the practice, archive, community, or collection that forms the evidence base.
A good Plymouth shortlist record should save the research-area page, the relevant school, the postgraduate research coordinator, the degree type, and the Doctoral College guidance that applies. Note whether the proposed work is full time or part time and which parts of the project still need confirmation, such as facilities, ethics, data access, or a supervisor's capacity. The official pages provide a clear path from a broad area to a school contact, but they cannot confirm that a particular project will be approved without a current discussion and a workable proposal. Keep any follow-up answer beside the page that prompted the enquiry so the record stays useful.